Sunday, April 25, 2010

In this hot sunny weather there is no better time to have a nice lager. However over the years the term lager has come to mean something very different than it originally meant. Brands like Heineken, Budweiser and Coors now dominate the bottled lager market. Their beer tends to be very light, very fizzy and served very cold, this combination leads to a very dull, watery tasting beer. However there is still some great lagers to be found if you look a bit harder. Here are two such American lagers that I would highly recommend:

Brewed by the Brooklyn Brewery in New York this is a wonderful American Amber Lager. American Pale ales are renowned for their heavy hop flavour however this American lager is very much about the malts. Pours a lovely gold colour with a frothy head that dissipates to a thin white head. The aroma is all above the lovely malts with a nice hint of floral hops in the background. Nice and lightly bodied with a good level of carbonation and a lovely smooth creamy mounthfeel. This is a lovely smooth thirst quenching lager. A truly fantastic beer and available at a very good price. This should be the type of lager that everybody drinks. This will no doubt become a staple of my shopping list and my beer fridge.

Thanks to the fantastic Brookyn Brewery website, lots of information is provided that will allow you to brew this beer at home:

Brewed by Samuel Adams of Boston this is another fantastic example of an American Lager. Brewed using a decoction mash this beer once again is all about the malts. Pours a lovely dark golden colour, nice head with a high degree of lacing. The aroma is perfectly balanced between the sweet malts and the beautiful noble hops (Halletaur Mittelfruch and Tettnang Tettnanger). Medium bodied with a nice creamy mounthfeel. This is a really well balanced beer with a nice hop charater complimented by a lovely sweet maltiness. This really is a stunning example of a lager and should be what all 'lagers' should aspire to. Highly recommended.